Keeping Up Appearances
by Oh Mina Obscener
Summary: Shannon's having trouble sleeping, and when she does get to sleep,nightmares come.What will happen when she runs strait to Sawyer.. sleepwalking? Bad summary, but please R


1**Disclaimer:** I don't own Lost or anything associated with it..Hee,_ associated _was one of our spelling words this week... Knew it would some in handy to remember how to spell that one! But I'm already off track.. Anyway... yea..

**A/N:** please R&R . I understand this setting and stuff isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I'm enjoying it. This is a short one-shot!

Her mask fit her well. Her prissy, snobby appearance was a thick cloak she used to shield her feelings and push away her insecurities with. Until now it had slid on so well she barely had to act to convince everyone who she was. Or at least, who she wanted them to think she was.

Lately she felt like she was crumbling. Her stuck-up bitch stereotype she hid behind had a major flaw.And this island was prying it out of her. Take the fact that they were all stranded, doubled by the mounting fear of the unknown, and add a pinch of un-diluted reality, and you had the perfect recipe to make Shannon come undone...

She was tired. So tired that she wasn't able to sleep well. Her old night-terrors and sleep-walking habits she hadn't had since she was a girl had plagued her lately and she worried constantly about wandering off into the jungle unnoticed in the middle of the night. Never to be seen again. The thought made her shudder. Three nights ago, she had woken to Boone shaking her shoulder roughly.

"What?" she had snapped.

"You were yelling and thrashing around. Go back to sleep." But she hadn't been able to. Not since.Now her fatigue was starting to override her fear. She sat up on the beach. It was late. Boone lay several yards away, snoring lightly. Her eyes hurt, and the stars seemed too bright, intrusive. She blinked heavily and found it hard to open her eyes again. Shannon knew she was going to fall asleep....

Sawyer lit a cigarette. He inhaled slowly, savoringly, and then exhaled, watching the smoke obscure the perfect stars.

"What the hell difference does it make?" He said to himself.

"I'm living the goddamned high-life." He thought of himself out here on a tropical island, and aside from being tied to a tree and tortured several days earlier, it was a piece of cake to listen to the waves crash onto the sand and watch everyone spin like wind-up toys. Jack came to mind . And yet that evening he couldn't take his mind off rescue. Off of getting away from the island.

Lately he was lonely. He wanted company. Preferably female company, he thought, but then again any sort of companionship would be nice. Just to smoke with and talk. Then again, some beer and DVD's wouldn't be so bad either. Sawyer wasn't all cold-hearted son of a bitch with a one-track mind, but if you told anyone on the island that they would laugh at your face, and this he knew..

He closed his eyes, deciding he didn't care, his cigarette forgotten and smouldering dully between two fingers. He had almost drifted off to sleep when a small scream followed by a crashing noise woke him. He jumped up and was surprised, if not stunned, to see Shannon passing him, crashing past the trees.

"Hey! Sweet cheeks, what's the hurry?"He called after her. She payed no attention.

"Damn !" He cursed as he plunged in after her. It wasn't long before he caught up to her and grabbed her slender wrist. He had applied not much force at first, but her antics and weak shrieking caused him to strengthen his hold.

"What the hell, Shannon?"

"No ! Get away from me-"

"I'm not gonna hurt you ! Your sleeping! It's Sawyer!" He told her quietly. He could only imagine the things he might be accused of if someone heard them and came to see what was the matter. She kept struggling, tears streaming down her face, trying to pull away and run further into the jungle.

"Let me go..." She whimpered.

Frustrated, Sawyer took her by the shoulders and shook her slightly. She snapped her eyes fully open and stopped struggling and yelling.

"What am I doing here?" Her tears stopped spilling from her frightened eyes.

"What are you doing?" She asked shakily, looking down at his hands, which were still firmly gripping her shoulders. He let them go slowly. Then he grinned mischievously.

"Hey, sweet cheeks, having a little bad dream? You aught to be more careful, running into the jungle like that, you could get lost..." He was having fun now, though he didn't intend to hurt her.

"You never know what kinda shady characters you might run into all alone out here.." He let his fingers reach up and brush through her hair, tracing his forefinger along her cheek. He put on his best menacing expression, and loomed over the small girl. It didn't have the intended affect. Shannon's eyes filled up with tears and she looked away, choked by a sob. Joke over, Sawyer tried to catch her eye.

"Hey, what's the matter? I wasn't really gonna hurt you." He told her.

"I _know_ that." He wasn't convinced she had, though.

"I just.. Never mind." She tried to push past him to return to her camp spot, but he caught her wrist, interested now.

"No, what's going on? What were you dreaming about?"

"None of your business, Sawyer." She spat and tried to move around him again.

"Look, I think I deserve at least an explanation for saving you from getting lost out here you know. Nobody would have noticed you were gone till morning." To convince her to open up, he added, " You know you're lucky. There's a lot more I could ask of you."

Shannon crumbled. "Look, when I was younger I had bad insomnia. And when I actually did get to sleep, I would sleepwalk and have nightmares, the works. Lately I've been up a lot at night.. I don't know why...And tonight I just ..was dreaming that I was running, you know, from something, but I couldn't. I don't know why..." She trailed off.

_I know why..._ Thought Sawyer..._ Because your just a scared little girl under that mean bitch skin you wear... _He found himself feeling oddly sympathetic. What was this? Why did he want to comfort her?

"Please," She begged. "Don't go telling everyone or... anything like that.._" _

"Tell everyone what? That you had a nightmare? Honey to be honest I don't care...If anything I feel bad for you." He laughed softly. "And besides," He drawled, " Your secret's safe with me... It's not gonna come up in all those friendly conversations I'm always having with everybody." He said sarcastically. She smiled at him and he ran his fingers through her hair again... His mind drifted back to that female company idea...

"I'd better get back so Boone doesn't see that I'm gone." She said, thankfully oblivious to his thoughts.

"Alright." He took back his hand.

"Sleep tight."

"I'll try."

She ran back out onto the beach and stole back in the shadows to her camp, unseen except for Sawyer, who watched her go.

Shannon crept back into her sleeping spot, and burrowed under her blanket. Boone was still sleeping over to her right and she realized she was tired. She pushed all the thoughts of nightmares and the island into the back of her mind and pretended she was back home sleeping on her waterbed, with her soft feather pillow. She was asleep within minutes.

The End.


End file.
